Potty Training Secrets

Every doxie owner knows these little fellas can be hard to train. Blarney is no exception. He's nine months and counting but we still have accidents. Maybe the word "accident" is a little generous. It's more like "If you think I'm going out in the wet to poop, give your head a shake. I like quiet, dry corners." Thank goodness peeing falls under a different category. Blarney loves to mark the property so he always seems to have a little left when he's coaxed outside.

And coax we do! One of our favourite ways is to throw out a ball. We have accumulated a colourful collection of a certain variety that squeeze 'n squeak at least for a few weeks until Blarney bites them to a peaceful demise. The squeak becomes a quiet, popping rattle as the air leaves the ball and then the ball recovers its shape. At first he only liked the noisy ones but lately his interest in old, quiet ones has prevailed. Thank goodness! The squeaking was noisy punctuation during a conversation.

The ball gets tossed out into our backyard fern beds and Blarney sets out to find it, day or night, in any kind of weather. If he finds it and arrives back quickly with ball proudly filling his mouth, we know he didn't go. If he stops to do some "business" he drops the ball and returns empty mouthed. The balls accumulate in the yard for picking up later.